Integrated circuit (xe2x80x9cICxe2x80x9d) cards are becoming increasingly used for many different purposes in the world today. An IC card (also called a smart card) typically is the size of a conventional credit card which contains a computer chip including a microprocessor, read-only-memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only-memory (EEPROM), an Input/Output (I/O) mechanism and other circuitry to support the microprocessor in its operations. An IC card may contain a single application or may contain multiple independent applications in its memory. MULTOS(trademark) is a multiple application operating system which runs on IC cards, among other platforms, and allows multiple applications to be executed on the card itself. This allows a card user to run many programs stored in the card (for example, credit/debit, electronic money/purse and/or loyalty applications) irrespective of the type of terminal (i.e., ATM, telephone and/or POS) in which the card is inserted for use.
A conventional single application IC card, such as a telephone card or an electronic cash card, is loaded with a single application when it is manufactured and before it is given to a card user. That application, however, cannot be modified or changed after the card is issued even if the modification is desired by the card user or card issuer. Moreover, if a card user wanted a variety of application functions to be performed by IC cards issued to him or her, such as both an electronic purse and a credit/debit function, the card user would be required to carry multiple physical cards on his or her person, which would be quite cumbersome and inconvenient. If an application developer or card user desired two different applications to interact or exchange data with each other, such as a purse application interacting with a frequent flyer loyalty application, the card user would be forced to swap multiple cards in and out of the card-receiving terminal, making the transaction difficult, lengthy and inconvenient.
Therefore, it is beneficial to store multiple applications on the same IC card. For example, a card user may have both a purse application and a credit/debit application on the same card so that the user could select which type of payment (by electronic cash or credit card) to use to make a purchase. Multiple applications could be provided to an IC card if sufficient memory exists and an operating system capable of supporting multiple applications is present on the card. Although multiple applications could be preselected and placed in the memory of the card during its production stage, it would also be beneficial to have the ability to load and delete applications for the card post-production as needed.
It is important, particularly where there is a continuing wide availability of new applications to the cardholder, that the system has the capability of adding applications onto the IC-card subsequent to issuance. This is necessary to protect the longevity of the IC cards; otherwise, once an application becomes outdated, the card would be useless. It would be beneficial to allow the addition of applications from a remote location as well as from a direct connection to an application provider""s terminal. For example, it would be beneficial for a card.user to be able to plug his IC card into his home computer and download an application over the Internet. Alternatively, it would be beneficial for an application provided by Bank A to be loaded from a terminal (such as an ATM) located at Bank B which is connected to Bank A by a network or series of interconnected networks.
The increased flexibility and power of storing multiple applications on a single card create new challenges to be overcome concerning the application loading process in which information (including application code and associated data) is exchanged between the application provider and the individual card. The IC card only has a finite amount of memory on the card for storing applications. Applications and their associated data can vary drastically in size depending upon the application. When multiple applications are stored on a card, and a series of application additions and deletions have occurred, memory fragmentation where memory which is free cannot be used because of size limitations.
Additionally, an IC card has limited space in its input buffer, which can be separate or combined with an output buffer, i.e., an Input/Output (I/O) buffer. It may not be possible to fit the entire application and its associated data into an I/O buffer of an IC card at one time. In order to achieve the flexibility of selectively loading and deleting applications on an IC card, the problems of limited I/O buffer space and fragmentation must be addressed.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a system and method that allows for flexible loading of an application and its associated data onto an IC card by segmenting the application and associated data into selected segments in order to limit the size of the data packets being transmitted at one time and reduce fragmentation in the memory of the IC card.
These and other objectives are achieved by the present invention which provides an IC card system and method for flexibly loading an application and its associated data from an application onto an IC card. The application provider divides the application and its associated data into segments which will fit into the I/O buffer of the intended IC card. Each segment is transmitted separately and the IC card stores the segment in an available space in the IC card""s memory. The segments can be placed in non-contiguous memory in order to reduce memory fragmentation. The IC card""s microprocessor can additionally determine the smallest memory space which will store the segment in order to minimize fragmentation.
In a preferred embodiment, the application provider determines the size of the IC card""s I/O buffer so that it can correctly select the size of each segment.